Nottinghamshire Council to launch hybrid working

Nottinghamshire County Council has announced plans to move to a hybrid working model by October in order to increase employee efficiency and engagement.

The move is part of the council’s hybrid working strategy, which has been set up to find more effective ways of managing its workforce after the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, while also improving the productivity of staff.

The changes will take effect after 19 July, when the final easing of lockdown restrictions and working from home guidance is expected to come to an end in England. The model will result in some staff becoming flexible workers, where they spend a mixture of their working days between their home and office, others becoming full-time home workers, and the remainder either returning to the office permanently or working within the community.

According to a council spokesperson, the challenges of the pandemic have provided the team with an opportunity to review the way employees work and build on the progress of its smarter working programme, which was already under way before the crisis.

The spokesperson explained that the council will use what it has learnt from the pandemic and feedback from staff to provide a springboard for new ways of working in the future, which will include the ability of many more employees to work remotely or from home, utilising technology more effectively.

The hybrid working model will give people flexibility, empowering them to balance their work and home lives while ensuring that service priorities are met, added the spokesperson, before continuing to say that employees will remain accountable for their work outcomes but have greater freedom on how, where and when their work is delivered.

If approved by the policy committee next week, the scheme is expected to be implemented in full by the end of October. However, some prioritised council services will begin to implement the model later this month.